Philippines: U.S. soldier wounded fighting New Peoples Army

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines, which urges an end to U.S. intervention in the Philippines.

US soldier wounded in failed anti-NPA combat operation in Masbate April 28, 2009

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today disclosed that a US soldier embedded in a combat unit of the 9th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army was wounded last April 15 after joint US and government troops attempted to encircle and attack a unit of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Barangay Baras, Esperanza, Masbate. The Red fighters were able to fight back, resulting in the death of three government soldiers and the wounding of the US trooper. An NPA fighter was martyred in the clash.

The NPA-Masbate’s Jose Rapsing Command sent information that the wounded US trooper was subsequently flown to the Luzon mainland and that the following day, scores of soldiers from the 9th IB and more US forces were flown in by helicopter to Barangay Nauco, Placer, Masbate. At least 12 American soldiers were integrated in the AFP’s “quick reaction force.”

“This incident shatters US and Philippine officials’ lies that their military forces in the ongoing joint Balikatan exercises in the Bicol region, Panay, Central Luzon, Mindanao and elsewhere are merely involved in humanitarian operations,” said the CPP. “The recent incident in Esperanza, Masbate proves that the Balikatan exercises are laying the groundwork and raising the level of involvement of US soldiers and their interoperability with government forces in the Arroyo government’s counterrevolutionary war.”

The CPP said further that “In bringing the so-called Balikatan exercises to suspected areas of operations of the NPA, the US and the puppet government clearly aim to widen and intensify US military intervention in ongoing ‘counter-insurgency’ operations against the growing revolutionary forces.

“The US military has long been involved in the AFP’s counter-guerrilla operations. Their troops have served as consultants, advisers, trainors and providers of intelligence information to the local fascist troops. They have been providing aerial reconnaissance and satellite and electronic intelligence information and have gone to the extent of participating directly in counter-guerrilla operations on many occasions,” the CPP added.

“As more and more US troops are embedded in the combat units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and participate in armed encounters with the NPA, more and more US soldiers are bound to either get killed or wounded,” the CPP pointed out.

“The CPP calls on the Filipino people to intensify their clamor to end the Visiting Forces Agreement and US military interventionism,” added the CPP. “We urge the American people to oppose the participation of the US military in the counterrevolutionary war in the Philippines.”

“The CPP and the Filipino people trust that given the tremendous loss of American lives in Vietnam and Iraq, the vast majority of the American people oppose US participation in foreign civil wars and an escalation of US involvement in the Philippine civil war.

“We call on the American people not to allow their government to continue with military interventionism, waste millions of taxpayers’ money and risk the lives of US soldiers in the Philippine civil war,” said the CPP.